The young pay a heavy price for the support given to the elderly
Over-65s have every advantage - and the Coalition is bent on giving them even more
By Fraser Nelson...
"... Fifty years ago, Friedrich Hayek predicted that the welfare state would end up in such a mess. "Most of those who will retire at the end of the century will be dependent on the charity of the younger generation," he wrote in The Constitution of Liberty. And the outcome? "Not morals but the fact that the young supply the police and the army will decide the issue: concentration camps for the aged unable to maintain themselves are likely to be the fate of an old generation whose income is entirely dependent on coercing the young."
It was a bleak, even hysterical prophecy. But his idea of a conflict between the generations certainly sums up the attitude of some on the Left who are itching to confiscate the old's money via a wealth tax, or a similar device. But Hayek's analysis makes a major mistake: to imagine that the over-65s would be charity cases. In fact, they are the foot soldiers of the economic recovery, accounting for most of the rise in employment over the past five years while youth unemployment surges. By some measures, it's the old carrying the young - not vice versa.
So Hayek was wrong. The over-65s are not a massive grey pressure group sitting at home, threatening to vote Labour unless they get a free TV licence - although most political strategists seem to think otherwise. They are so concerned about the fate of their grandchildren that they're giving away £1,500 a year, according to J P Morgan. No one volunteers to have benefits shaved, but it's likely that British pensioners are more ready than politicians think for a serious discussion about how the burden should be shared. As the Prime Minister once put it: we are all in this together. "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10385889/The-young-pay-a-heavy-price-for-the-support-given-to-the-elderly.html
So, there it is. We need a Land Value Tax, and an immediate up-scaling of Council Tax Bands, and a refocusing of attention onto the plight of the young.
